Armor doesn't reduce attack skill damage

I ran a 206 AL elementalist against the Master of Hammers then the Master of Axes and to my surprise got hurt pretty bad :/
Why? Because my armor didn't reduce the damage mentioned in their attack skill descriptions.

Do you think it's normal or should it be reported as a bug?



For the septics, here are the tests I ran, both on 60 Armor and 100 Armor:

• Normal attack with 0 Axe Mastery, no skill used,
• Skill attack (+31dmg Power Attack) with 0 Axe Mastery and 16 Strength.

I didn't take critical hits into account to calculate the following average damages.

60 Armor, normal attack: 1dmg, ~1.9dmg, 3dmg crit


60 Armor, skill attack: 38dmg, ~37.7dmg, 43dmg crit


100 Armor, normal attack: 1dmg, ~1dmg, 2dmg crit


100 Armor, skill attack: 35dmg, ~34.4dmg, 37dmg crit


I can't mathematically explain the dmg difference between a skill attack on a 60AL target and a 100AL one; Armor penetration from Strength would you think, but if attack skills ignore armor...

Something else I don't understand: 0 Marksmanship (so usualy dealing ~2.7dmg on 60AL targets), 16 Expertise, +26dmg Point Blank Shot -> ~35.7dmg on 60AL, up to 44 critical damage. Slightly less dmg on 100AL targets.

+ damage modifiers for example Eviserates + 40 damage Ignores armor then of course you add in STR.

What he said...

also

You should visit the "scroll of insight" section about skills more often...

Although it seems pretty silly, it appears to be by design that the additional damage from skills is armor ignoring. This also make the weakness condition pointless because you can still easily spike with it on you. I don't know why the damage was different on the 100 AL vs 60 AL though...

this fact is already well-known, but it's good to see a formal test on it.

this is the reason why spammable attack skills work better against high AL targets.

indeed

See my response in the Power Attack thread for why Power Attack and Point Blank Shot aren't exactly giving you the right numbers. At the levels of Strength and Expertise you have, you're getting over three times whatever damage you're normally getting when you use those skills (actually, almost four times as much damage if you toss in Strength's armor penetration.) There's a vast difference between using 0 Axe Mastery for base damage and 16 Strength for base damage.


Also, using a while enchanted Axe for testing on the Isle of the Nameless is a bit of a hassle as those Masters of the Winds keep casting Windborne Speed on you.

The damage can be reduced through Shielding Hands however.